ReviewCNS drugs2014
Potential role of N-acetylcysteine in the management of substance use disorders.
Review in CNS drugs, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 80 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
80 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 191 citations in OpenAlex.
- N-Acetylcysteine for the Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders: A Review of Current Evidence.BioMed research international · 2018Pooled it
- A Randomized Controlled Trial of N-acetylcysteine for Adolescent and Young Adult Alcohol Use Disorder.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2026Trial
- Glutamate- and GABA-targeted drugs for Cc-occurring bipolar and alcohol use disorders: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study of N-acetylcysteine, gabapentin, and placebo.Translational psychiatry · 2026Trial
- N-acetylcysteine for youth cannabis use disorder: randomized controlled trial main findings.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Trial
- N-acetylcysteine does not alter neurometabolite levels in non-treatment seeking adolescents who use alcohol heavily: A preliminary randomized clinical trial.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2023Trial
- Evaluating N-acetylcysteine for early and end-of-treatment abstinence in adult cigarette smokers.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2021Trial
- Neural correlates of clinical improvement in response to N-acetylcysteine in adolescents with non-suicidal self-injury.Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry · 2020Trial
- Depressive symptoms and cannabis use in a placebo-controlled trial of N-Acetylcysteine for adult cannabis use disorder.Psychopharmacology · 2020Trial
- The effect of N-acetylcysteine on alcohol use during a cannabis cessation trial.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2018Trial
- N-Acetylcysteine for Nonsuicidal Self-Injurious Behavior in Adolescents: An Open-Label Pilot Study.Journal of child and adolescent psychopharmacology · 2018Trial
- The effect of N-acetylcysteine on brain glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid concentrations and on smoking cessation: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2017Trial
- A randomized placebo-controlled trial of N-acetylcysteine for cannabis use disorder in adults.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2017Trial
- Alcohol use during a trial of N-acetylcysteine for adolescent marijuana cessation.Addictive behaviors · 2016Trial
- The effects of N-Acetylcysteine on frontostriatal resting-state functional connectivity, withdrawal symptoms and smoking abstinence: A double-blind, placebo-controlled fMRI pilot study.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2015Trial
- An open-label pilot trial of N-acetylcysteine and varenicline in adult cigarette smokers.The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse · 2015Trial
- Achieving cannabis cessation -- evaluating N-acetylcysteine treatment (ACCENT): design and implementation of a multi-site, randomized controlled study in the National Institute on Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network.Contemporary clinical trials · 2014Trial
- N-acetylcysteine as an adjunctive treatment for smoking cessation: a randomized clinical trial.Revista brasileira de psiquiatria (Sao Paulo, Brazil : 1999)Trial
- Methamphetamine hijacks chaperone-mediated autophagy to degrade GPX4, driving ferroptosis-precipitated cognitive decline and addictive pathogenesis.Acta neuropathologica communications · 2026Article
- Neuroimaging as the 'missing link' for preclinical to clinical translation: an example using N-acetylcysteine among individuals with cocaine- and opioid-use disorders receiving methadone treatment.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Article
20 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
There is a clear and pressing need to expand pharmacotherapy options for substance use disorders (SUDs) in order to improve sustained abstinence outcomes. Preclinical literature has demonstrated the role of glutamate in addiction, suggesting that new targets for pharmacotherapy should focus on the restoration of glutamatergic function. Glutamatergic agents for SUDs may span multiple addictive behaviors and help demonstrate potentially overlapping mechanisms in addiction. The current review will focus specifically on N-acetylcysteine (NAC), a safe and well-tolerated glutamatergic agent, as a promising potential pharmacotherapy for the treatment of SUDs across several substances of abuse. Building on recently published reviews of the clinical efficacy of NAC across a broad range of conditions, this review will more specifically discuss NAC as a pharmacotherapy for SUDs, devoting particular attention to the safety and tolerability profile of NAC, the wealth of preclinical evidence that has demonstrated the role of glutamate dysregulation in addiction, and the limited but growing clinical literature that has assessed the efficacy of NAC across multiple substances of abuse. Preliminary clinical studies show the promise of NAC in terms of safety, tolerability, and potential efficacy for promoting abstinence from cocaine, nicotine, and cannabis. Results from randomized clinical trials have been mixed, but several mechanistic and methodological factors are discussed to refine the use of NAC in promoting abstinence and relapse prevention across several substances of abuse. Further preclinical and clinical investigation into the use of NAC for SUDs will be vital in addressing current deficits in the treatment of SUDs.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.